Czech Philharmonic
Stéphane Denève

Gautier Capuçon is a true 21st century ambassador for the cello. Performing each season with many of the worldʼs foremost conductors and instrumentalists, he is also founder and leader of the Classe dʼExcellence de Violoncelle at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris based in the stunning new Auditorium designed by Frank Gehry.

During 2017/2018 Capuçon will appear as soloist in a number of orchestral tours across Europe, the US and in Asia. In Europe he will tour with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Wiener Symphoniker (Philippe Jordan), and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. In the US he will tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Charles Dutoit) and the National Center for Performing Arts; and in Asia with hr-Sinfonieorchester (Andres Orozco-Estrada) and as part of the Verbier Festival with Gabor Takacz. Other concerto highlights include return performances with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (Herbert Blomstedt), Wiener Philharmoniker (Semyon Bychkov), Orchestre de Paris (Yu Long), San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (Stephen Deneve), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (Mirga Graþinytë-Tyla) and London Philharmonia (Paavo Järvi).

A regular recital and chamber musician, Capuçon appears annually in the major halls and festivals worldwide. Highlights this season include a return to Carnegie Hall (with Daniil Trifonov), an extensive international recital tour with duo partner Jérôme Ducros, and performances at Verbier Festival with: Lisa Batiashvili, Christoph Eschenbach, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang and Tabea Zimmermann. Other artists with whom Capuçon regularly performs include Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Frank Braley, Renaud Capuçon, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and the Artemis and Ébène quartets.

Gautier Capuçon collaborates with contemporary composers including, amongst others, Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Jerome Ducros, Henry Dutilleux, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Krzysztof Penderecki, Wolfgang Rihm, and Jörg Widmann.

Recording exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics), Capuçon and has won multiple ECHO Klassik awards and holds an extensive discography. In 2016/2017 he released Beethoven Sonatas with Frank Braley to critical acclaim. Other recent recordings include Shostakovichʼs Cello Concertos with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev; and Schubertʼs String Quintet with Quatuor Ébène. Prior to that he won plaudits for a recital disc of music by Schubert, Schumann, Debussy, Britten and Carter with Frank Braley, and Saint-Saënsʼs First Cello Concerto and La Muse et le Poète with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France and Lionel Bringuier. He has also recorded chamber music with Martha Argerich, Nicholas Angelich, Renaud Capuçon and Gabriela Montero; and in 2013 Deutsche Grammophon released a DVD featuring Capuçon as soloist with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Gustavo Dudamel in a live performance of Haydnʼs Cello Concerto No. 1.

Born in Chambéry in 1981, Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet-Zakine, and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. The winner of various first prizes in many leading international competitions, including the International André Navarra Prize, Capuçon was named “New Talent of the Yearˮ by Victoires de la Musique in 2001.

Sergei Diaghilev’sBallets Russes (The Russian Ballets), which began to perform in Paris in the 1910s, made a profound effect on many prominent composers. It was also a source of inspiration for Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), who lived in Paris. He composed La valse, poème chorégraphique pour orchestre (a choreographic poem for orchestra) from December 1919 until March 1920. Ravel explored the poetry of waltz earlier in his Valses nobles et sentimentales from 1911. La valse actually quotes from one of these waltzes. Its orchestration has such strong Impressionist character that it sometimes obscures the essence of this composition as a dance.

Ravel described La valse “as a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, with which is mingled in my mind the fantastic whirl of destiny. Set in an imperial court, about 1855. Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd.” Diaghilev, however, did not accept the composition, and the relationship between the two artists was permanently damaged. The “choreographic poem” premiered on 12 December 1920 at a concert of the Orchestre de Colonne conducted by Camile Chevillard.